adding insult to injury

May-Day, We’re All Going Down!

I was in the Computer room the other day when all I wanted to do is take down one simple little computer and remove it from the group. I went to the Special menu and selected Shutdown as I’ve done thousands of times before. I don’t remember selecting a super-shutdown-all-these-mothers button, but that’s what happened. Do you know what 17 servers shutting down simultaneously sounds like? Exactly, “OH SHIT!”

Apparently redundant power with a UPS battery backup and a diesel backup generator are nothing when you put 80+ amps on a 20 amp circuit breaker it’s going to trip when there is a power spike of any kind, like shutting down a computer (go figure!).

I had to scramble to get as many up as possible while migrating some to another location. I called in the network boys and a PC supportster and got them to pull new cat-5 and move equipment while I’m typing logins as fast as I can.

The kicker was, when I was planning on adding a new g5 to the group earlier that morning, I wondered out loud:

Me:“Do you think we’ve got to much running off this circuit?”Group:“Awww hell no, this baby is wired for anything!” was the collective answer.